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Three criminals get more than they bargained for when they try to blackmail a Detroit business owner with proof of his extramarital affair. Businessman Harry Mitchell's latest visit to his lover Cini's apartment is disrupted by men in masks. They demand $105,000 from him, or else they'll show his wife Barbara the home movies they shot of Harry's trysts with Cini.
Distraught, Harry calls his lawyer Jim O'Boyle for help. O'Boyle recommends calling the ...Be Cool
Famed film producer Chili Palmer is lunching at an upscale L.A. restaurant with Tommy Athens, a former business associate of Chili's from Miami who is now a small-time record-promoter and road-manager.
While on his way to the men's room, Chili manages to be in the perfect position to see a man wearing a very bad wig shoot Tommy to death.
Sensing that this may be the makings of his next feature film, Chili steps in and offers to take over the day-to...City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit
Clement Mansell, called the "Oklahoma Wildman" by his detractors, is a crazed criminal with an crafty lawyer. Recently released from prison after his multiple-murder conviction was overturned on a technicality, he goes right out and shoots Judge Alvin B. Guy and his date because Judge Guy's car was cutting him off on the way to a robbery.
Assigned to the case is Detective Raymond Cruz, a recently-divorced investigator with a chip on his shoulder. Dete...Cuba Libre
Horsebreaker Ben Tyler has a contract to deliver 30 horses to a wealthy American sugar planter in Cuba. However, some simple math tells him that there's no profit to the contractor, Charlie Burke. The real profit is in the guns hidden on the boat carrying the horses.
On his arrival in Havana just three days after the the American battleship Maine is blown up in Havana harbor, Ben meets a collection of characters worthy of Elmore Leonard's rich imagina...

Leonard booklist

Freaky Deaky
The cast of characters in this novel all attended Michigan University in the 1960s, or were part of the antiwar movement in Detroit at the same time. Robin Abbott and Skip Gibbs were lovers and extreme radicals who both served time for bombing the U.S. Federal Building in Detroit. Mark and Woody Ricks are the sons of a wealthy mother who enjoyed the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll without being too interested in the politics. Now Woody is one of Detroit's wea...Get Shorty
Chili Palmer is a loan shark working out of Miami, but he really doesn't like it. He hates having to work with scum, especially Ray "Bones" Barboni, a local wiseguy who has been feuding with Chili for 12 years over a leather coat. Truth be told, Chili would much rather be making movies.
So when a dry-cleaner named Leo who owes Chili a few thousand dollars fakes his own death, rips-off his insurance company and heads for L.A., Chili sees a golden oppor...Glitz
Detective Vincent Mora is a mild-mannered homicide investigator recuperating from a recent gunshot wound in Puerto Rico. Upon his return to the States, Vincent learns that Iris Ruiz, once Vincent's "special friend," now a high-priced Atlantic City hooker, has taken a dive from the penthouse suite of a high-rise hotel.
Sensing something amiss, Vincent catches the next flight to New Jersey to investigate.
But what Vincent doesn't know is that pathol...Maximum Bob
Palm Beach County judge Bob Isum Gibbs, alias BIG, is a hated man. An oversexed, racist redneck, nicknamed "Maximum Bob" for his sentencing preferences, Judge Gibbs's enemies-list of miscreants and malfeasants is a mile long.
One of these men, a psychopathic gator-poacher named Elvin Crowe, who recently completed his Gibbs-mandated sentence for shooting the wrong man (it's a long story), has just accepted a murder contract on Judge Gibbs from another ...Pagan Babies
...Riding the Rap
Three criminals (and a psychic) get more than they bargain for when they kidnap a bookie to drain his bank account, because his ex-girlfriend is dating US Marshal Raylan Givens. Chip Ganz came up with the scheme: grab former mob bookie Harry Arno, keep him chained up and blindfolded for weeks, and finally, when he thinks all hope is lost, offer to set him free, for a price.
His partners are Bobby Deo and Louis Lewis, and yes, that's his real name. The...

Elmore Leonard list of books

Rum Punch
Ordell Robie's put away close to a million dollars through gunrunning, and he has power over a significant gang of street punks. His main problems are moving his cash from an island in the Bahamas to the United States and making sure that if any of his associates are captured, they don't make deals with the cops to turn him over.
His solution to the second problem brings him into contact with Max Cherry, a bail bondsman. Robie uses Cherry to hide the ...The Big Bounce
Jack Ryan is a former professional ball player turned petty thief. Ryan's a fairly amiable fellow with a penchant for finding himself in trouble. His latest run-in comes after Ryan shows off his batting skills on the side of a migrant co-worker's head. Ryan never could hit a curve ball and his last hit has him being run out of town.
Ryan does some odd jobs at a resort owned by the likeable town judge, Mr. Walter Majestyk.
Enter Nancy...The Law at Randado
Kirby Frye, the deputy sheriff in charge of Randado, becomes an opponent of the leading citizens of the town when he vows to bring cattleman Phil Sundeen to justice. Sundeen, the most powerful and richest businessman in the community, is behind the lynching of two Mexicans who stole a few of his cattle.
The Citizens' Committee, which consists of the merchants and other "leading citizens" has illegally elected a judge and prosecutor from among themselves...The Moonshine War
Son Martin runs a still in Prohibition Era Kentucky that was passed down to him by his father. The novel opens with the local sheriff sending a boy out to warn Son that he is going to raid the still. Son hides everything as the sheriff watches and then the raid is carried out. Nothing is found and the sheriff, his men, and Son drink together.
An old war buddy of Son's, Long, who works for in IRS as a prohibition agent shows up. He joins in on a party...The Switch
After two lowlifes kidnap Mickey Dawson, they find out her husband wants a divorce and won't pay the ransom -- and that Mickey is willing to turn the tables on everyone. Mickey Dawson is an unhappy wife who doesn't know she's about to be kidnapped. She just knows she's stuck in a pointless marriage to a rich, often drunk loudmouth, with a spoiled teenage son who barely acknowledges either of them. So she's a bit surprised when Ordell Robbie and Louis Gar...